Gaza Healthcare System

Andrew George Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Dr Opher]

I thank my hon. Friend for that timely intervention—I know she uses her professional skills in Parliament. It is important that we support the healthcare system in Gaza, and I know the Foreign Office is keen to do that.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I strongly support the points the hon. Gentleman is making in advancing his case. I am slightly worried about the expression “in the region”. We need to get medical workers into Gaza to make sure they can safely deploy their skills in the area. We are long past the time when the Israeli regime could justify its actions in terms of self-defence. The best way to achieve safe passage for medical aid workers in the area is to get the IDF out and get international peacekeepers in.

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[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Gentleman is right: everybody has a role to play in the problem. For the record, Israel is not perfect. I am not perfect and the hon. Gentleman is not perfect. We do things we should not do, and there is accountability and a process. I make that point, but I look back to where it started: Hamas started the thing. I have mentioned it specifically, but this is about the people who need help. That is why we are here. Let us focus on that.

[Andrew George]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Jim Shannon]

I do not think I can; it would not be fair on Members who have not yet spoken.

Hamas’s control plays a huge part in the lack of healthcare provision, including the use of civilian areas for military purposes. That complicates the delivery of aid and protection of residential areas. To say that there are chronic systematic weaknesses is an understatement.

It is important to understand the context in which the challenges exist. Hamas’s control over Gaza, its embedding of military infrastructure within civilian areas, and its prioritisation of terror over public services have directly contributed to the chronic weaknesses in the healthcare system. Israel, meanwhile, continues to facilitate humanitarian aid and medical access where possible, working with international organisations to ensure that urgent care reaches those in need. That must be enhanced and further encouraged.

We must support the invaluable work of global and UK Northern Ireland charities providing medical supplies, clean water, and essential care to children and families, while also holding Hamas accountable for the governance failures that put healthcare workers and patients at risk. Compassion for civilians—I am a compassionate person when it comes to these issues; others are the same—and a commitment to security are not mutually exclusive. Both must guide our response to the crisis in Gaza.

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[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for bringing forward this important debate.

It has been 137 days since the ceasefire started in Gaza, and although attention has drifted in the media, the humanitarian crisis rages on. The health sector is at absolute breaking point. Medicines are scarce. Hospitals lie in ruins, and wards have been reduced to rubble.

Temporary relief will not be enough. What is required is a sustained and effective humanitarian response and the rebuilding of Gazan healthcare. Not only must we put pressure on the Israeli Government to fully open the border, allow the aid in and allow transfers of care, but the international community has to go further. We have to ensure that Gaza has the infrastructure and sustainability long term to cope with future crises.

Years of blockade have left Gaza with a staggering list of challenges: shortages of medical equipment and medication, the destruction of hospitals, the killing of staff and an absence of patient evacuations. Bombs and bullets are not the only things that have been killing Gazans: lack of access to medical care has already killed thousands. At the start of the war in 2023, there were 1,244 kidney patients in Gaza. Now, that number is just 622. Thirty of those patients are documented to have died in Israeli military attacks, but hundreds have died simply for the lack of dialysis.

The shortages of medicines are still acute. Basic painkillers have become a luxury, and more than half the people in Gaza do not have access to their regular medication. Lab tests are at risk of complete standstill. Oncology surgery, operating rooms, intensive care—all have been hit very badly. Ongoing restrictions on the free passage of medical equipment by the Israeli Government have meant that the quantity of medicine reaching Gaza’s hospitals is simply not enough.

It is not only about the supply. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud laid out, Gaza’s medical workforce has been devastated. More than 1,700 medical workers have been killed, 3,000 have been wounded and more than 500 have been abducted or detained. Twenty-two hospitals have been put out of service, and 211 ambulances have been damaged. Of Gaza’s 176 primary healthcare centres, only a third remain even partially functional.

Health services are overwhelmed. Thousands of critically ill patients cannot be evacuated, and 20,000 patients are waiting for treatment abroad, but Rafah is still not fully open. Options are severely constrained. These evacuations are not just a matter of immediate care; they of course relieve the crushing ongoing pressure on the healthcare system. As my hon. Friends have laid out, there are functioning hospitals in the west bank and East Jerusalem, but access to them has been barred, which seems cruel.

[Andrew George]

The hon. Lady is making a magnificent contribution to the debate. The hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) talked about the imminent departure of aid agencies from Gaza, which has been forced by the Israeli regime. A lot of international aid workers have been into Gaza—one from Cornwall, Jim Henderson, was killed by the IDF in 2024. Does the hon. Lady accept that we need to open up Gaza to those aid workers and to get the IDF out?

[Lizzi Collinge]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The deregistering of international organisations is abhorrent. They are absolutely vital to this response, and I will touch on that point later.

Despite these unsurmountable barriers, healthcare workers have absolutely persevered. They have rebuilt health centres. Open-heart surgery has resumed at Al-Quds hospital. Childbirth services have restarted. I cannot be the only woman in the room who would have died in childbirth without medical intervention. It is horrendous to think of all those Palestinian women giving birth without medical support and of the impact on child and maternal mortality. International humanitarian organisations have been absolutely indispensable. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency carried out a 10-day vaccination campaign, which reached a third of Gazan children. That is absolutely fantastic.

We and the rest of the international community must put pressure on Israel. We must demand the immediate release of detained medical personnel, along with a guarantee that they will be protected to do their work. We must insist that the Rafah crossing is opened to allow in essential lifesaving equipment, and we must insist on lifting the forthcoming ban on organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières.

Restoring and rebuilding healthcare systems will be a core part of overall reconstruction efforts, but we must look further into the future. The blockade and systematic underfunding have meant that even in times of relative peace, Gazan healthcare was very fragile. Reconstruction cannot mean rebuilding the fragility that existed before. We need to strengthen local medical education, infrastructure and training. That can only come with a free and democratic Palestinian state. Palestinians deserve to live in peace and health—as do all their neighbours. The situation in Gaza shows that health is more than a technical issue and about more than getting medicines: it is political, structural and absolutely central to any hope of lasting peace.